Peonies are my favorite flowers! I have a few bushes growing in the front yard and look forward to blooming season every year. If I was a better gardener they’d probably last longer😬! Thanks to my hubby they at least get to bloom😄. He loves a green yard which keeps the peonies happy too! I love a nice DIY fall wreath and I really wanted to make one with peonies.

I was hoping to replicate a real peony wreath with faux peonies. This proved to be a bit challenging but, led me to some cool discovers of painting fake flowers. I figured out two ways to do it. #1 Was with acrylic paint and #2 was with spray paint! Cool right? I was thinking there’s probably a paint made just for painting flowers but, I seriously didn’t feel like hunting for the exact color or feel like trying a new product. This worked out great in the end!

Okay let’s get started!

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Time Needed:

This wreath only takes about 30 minutes to make. If you plan on painting your flowers it will around an hour + drying time.

Total Cost: $25

This is how much the wreath cost me. Keep in mind I used some coupons and made sure to get peonies that were on sale. This made a huge difference.

Supplies:

• 1 Bush Off white Peonies ( amazon sells some beautiful ones here – https://amzn.to/2J9Sz6x )
• 1 Bush Orange Peonies ( oh my gosh I actually found some burnt orange colored ones here – https://amzn.to/3bnOR57 )
• Hot glue ( my favorite heavy duty glue here – https://amzn.to/2Uj9slE )
• Wire Clippers
• 14″ Grapevine wreath
• 2″ Small Foam balls ( amazon sells some here- https://amzn.to/2UxS4s1 )

Optional  ( if you plan to custom paint your flowers)

• Floetrel ( I got mine at homedepot. amazon also sells some here – https://amzn.to/3bpPbAA )
• Acrylic paint
• Water
• Brush

2 WAYS TO PAINT FAKE FLOWERS!

Lately I’ve been buying all my supplies at one craft store because, I hate going from store to store.  Hobby Lobby is usually my best bet for all craft supplies. The downside to this is I’ll usually buy whatever they have and tweak it and don’t bother hunting for something specific. They had lots of orange flowers but, they were all bright pumpkin orange. I was hoping to get more of a burnt umber orange. After searching through every fall aisle I  figured I could paint the flowers to get the color I wanted. Never tried this but, I was pretty sure acrylic paint would do the trick.  These were also only $7.99 because all the fall stuff was 40%. That’s a pretty good deal!

What you need to know

Painting them was easier than expected! I took each flower off the stem than pulled the pedals apart. Instead of painting them with just watered down acrylic I mixed my paint with fleotrol. If you’re not familiar with floetrol, it’s a paint conditioner that helps improve paint flow. It also keeps the paint soft once dry. You could probably get away with diluting your acrylic paint in water however the paint will separate and you have to keep stirring.  Floetrol is made for diluting acrylic paint.  I brushed a bit of diluted paint on each pedal and applied a drop of water to help work the color around evenly. You can also apply water for an even transition wherever you don’t want too much color added.  Let your flower pedals dry and resemble them. If you don’t want to take your pedals apart you can totally paint them as a whole flower too. I just found it harder that way.

At first I was a bit freaked out about pulling the pedals apart because, I’ve never done this before 😨!  There were little pieces of plastic and all the pedals were layered in what seemed to be a pattern. DON’T FREAK OUT! It’s so easy to re-assemble them. I didn’t add all my little plastics back and my flowers still looked just as good! 😀  As long as you have the front plastic and back plastic you should be fine. ( yes I should seriously be wearing gloves)

Spray paint works too!

Spray paint does the trick as well! My beige flowers had a lot of brown tones on them so I took them apart and gave them a light coat of spray paint. 🙂  You can also just pull the center out of the flower and spray paint the pedals while they’re still stacked on top of each other. This worked great with spray painting! Then you’d just add the center back into the flower once dry and re-attach it to the stem.

How to make a closed stem peony!

Because these cute little closed peonies are so hard to come by I figured I would make some as well! I took a foam ball and stuck a stem in it. I cut a stem from one of the bouquets. Then I took a peony pedal that had somewhat rounded edges and hotglued each pedal to the foam ball.  It’s helps if you do one stem at a time. Your hot glue can’t be too hot as it’ll melt the foam and you won’t be able to adhere your pedals. I heated up the glue just enough for it to squeeze out.

Once you’ve wrapped your whole flower pedal around add some glue around the stem where it inserts into the foam. This will allow the stem to keep from popping out. Than slide on some green leaves an add the bottom green stopper.

DIY Fall Wreath With Peonies

The wreath itself is super easy to assemble.  You can do a full wreath with flowers or half like I did. This technique works the same on both. 😁

Step one:  Arranging the flowers for your DIY fall Wreath!

Cut your flowers leaving about a 3 inch stem. Then stick the flowers through your grapevine wreath arranging them however you’d like your wreath to look like.  I made sure to stick flowers in from the side and directly from the top.  I also wanted my small closed peonies to be more visible so I secured them on the ends and not in between the bushier flowers.

Step 2:  Securing it all!

Now use your hot glue and apply a bit of hot glue to each stem and insert it back into the grapevine wreath. Make sure the glue touches the grapevine. Once you have all your flowers secured fill in the gaps with some greenery. I used the green leaves that came with the bouquets and added at least one leaf between each flower and a few leaves around all the edges. This helps breakup the flowers and outline the shape of the wreath. Before you finish up flip the wreath over and snip off any stems that are sticking out. You can additionally secure all the stems on the back side as well. That’s it!! Isn’t that super easy?! 😄😊

OTHER DIYS YOU’LL LOVE :

• FROSTED CRANBERRY WREATH 
• DIY CHUNKY KNIT PLANTER
• RECYCLED WINE BOTTLE CENTERPIECE
• FAMILY PHOTO CHRISTMAS TREE ALTERNATIVE
• CENTERPIECE USING CARROTS

Here it is! I am obsessed with the burnt umber color! I seriously wish they made more flowers this color! To be honest I was surprised they didn’t have it in store. It’s such a trendy color on pinterest. LOL😂 I geuss Hobby Lobby isn’t pinterest!

Those white peonies look so cute from the side! I loved making this DIY fall wreath! It’s pretty simple but, so elegant!

That’s it! I hope you’re inspired to make your own DIY fall wreath!  The possibilities are endless. Happy Crafting! I have two more wreath DIYs coming soon. 😀 Stay tuned! 🙂

xo,

Lily-